: : diageo : : world class : : future of cocktails

: : DIAGEO : : WORLD CLASS : : FUTURE OF COCKTAILS

THE : FUTURE : LABORATORY DIAGEO : WORLD CLASS : FUTURE OF COCKTAILS : 3THE : FUTURE : LABORATORY

Introduction : 5

Section 1: Global Evolutions and Changes : 9 : Beyond Borders : Backlash Culture

Section 2: Cocktail Trends and their Macrotrends : 15 : Controversy Cocktails : Emotional Cocktails : Fluid Identity Patrons

Section 3: Shifts in the cocktail industry : 27 : Cocktail Dispersion : Blurred Boundaries : The Modern Bartender : Cocktail Proliferation : Cocktail Reformulated

Experts : 31

CEO : Trevor HardyCo-founder : Chris SandersonLS:N Global editor-in-chief : Martin RaymondChief growth officer : Tom SavigarChief strategy and innovation officer : Tracey FollowsBusiness development director : Cliff BuntingReport editor : Steve ToozeStrategic researcher : Sebastien Van Laere

Creative director : Kirsty MinnsProduction planner : Alex CrouchProduction editor : Ian GillCreative artworker : Neil Rees

Head of sales : Laura-Jane ClarkSenior business development manager : Jonathan AyresBusiness development managers : David Backhouse, Alena Joyette, Kishan Joshi

The Future Laboratory :26 Elder Street, London E1 6BT, United KingdomPhone: +44 20 7791 2020Email: [email protected]

The Future Laboratory is one of Europe’s foremost trend forecasting, consumer insight and strategic innovation consultancies. Through its online network LS:N Global, it speaks to 300 clients in 14 lifestyle sectors on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.

Contact : For further information on all our services please contact [email protected] or call +44 20 7791 2020. You can also join the conversation in our LinkedIn group, The Future Laboratory, and follow us on Twitter @TheFutureLab.

LSNglobal.com

DIAGEO : WORLD CLASS : FUTURE OF COCKTAILS : 2

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Introduction : 5

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‘Who am I to argue how they like their Old Fashioned? I make mine a certain way and they might think that it is shit compared to what they make at home, so why would they come and spend good money on something they can make at home? I would rather deliver something that they can’t possibly ever make at home.’

Luke Whearty, owner, Operation Dagger


The report outlines the main changes in consumer and bartender behaviour that will transform cocktail culture in the decade to come.

The global cocktail industry is leading the way in experimenting with new ingredients and technologies to play with the senses and satisfy a growing consumer demand for fresh and premium tastes, and this year’s WORLD CLASS: Future of Cocktails report examines and explores the bartenders, chefs, tastemakers and adventurous brands who are daring to ask: what is a cocktail, how do we make one, and why?

The report discovers an exciting cross-pollination of cultural desires and demands as new generations of globe-trotting creators and drinkers make and consume cocktails that trigger new emotions, provide tastes of unfamiliar places, court controversy and overturn boundaries.

As consumers increasingly demand – and recognise – the best ingredients, bartenders are owning their supply chains and changing their training and strategies to supply what their opinionated and knowledgeable patrons want.

Introduction

The WORLD CLASS: Future of Cocktails report is the result of a collaboration between WORLD CLASS, an initiative by spirits company Diageo to inspire the world to drink better, and renowned futures consultancy The Future Laboratory.


Global Evolutions and Changes : 9


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These young consumers are characterised by a holistic world view that has given rise to a borderless mentality encapsulated by five big shifts in behaviour:

Beyond Borders

Humanity became a hyper-connected species with the explosion of the internet. Now, as digitally savvy Millennials and Generation Z come of age, a truly global consumer mindset is emerging.


Beyond Borders

1. From brand loyalty to brand promiscuity

Brand loyalty is waning fast as hyper-connected consumers with constant access to information make more informed decisions, searching beyond borders and across brands.

Nearly half (49%) of US consumers will gladly switch brands for a coupon (GfK). And this is not restricted to specific income levels, as 53% of adults in high-income households – those earning £150k ($200k, €178k) a year or more – are willing to switch brands for the sake of using a coupon (GfK). In addition, a global study by TNS revealed that Chinese consumers are some of the smartest shoppers globally, as 88% conduct some kind of research to inform their purchase decisions.

2. From acquisition to access

Digital technology has made it cheap and easy to share goods and services, and Millennials are increasingly using their new online reach to gain access to what they want without feeling the need to own it.

According to a study by Pricewaterhouse Coopers released in 2015, 43% of US consumers agree that owning today feels like a burden and 57% agree that access is the new ownership. Earlier this year, BMW revealed that it considered technology companies such as Uber, rather than other car manufacturers, to be its future competitors.

3. From local attitudes to global concerns

In a world in which the Brexit vote and an attempted coup in Turkey are causing economic and political shockwaves to ripple through all of our lives, it is clear that we can no longer afford to take a narrow national view of events.

New forms of cross-border thinking are emerging as we slowly become world citizens for whom the local and the global are so inextricably linked that we no longer distinguish between them. In March 2016, an average of 110 years’ worth of video was watched daily on live-stream app Periscope, which is available in 25 languages, according to Venture Beat. And 75% of its users are aged 16–34, according to Global Web Index.

4. From fixed identities to sharded identities

Consumers, especially among the younger demographics, are learning to express different facets of their identity across a range of social media platforms.

Instead of a single, consistent identity, the generations who grew up online fragment their personalities by creating multiple avatars, ranging from the exhibitionist social animal of Facebook and the ambitious professional of LinkedIn to the perfect romantic partner of Tinder.

Globally, internet users now have 5.54 social media accounts each and engage actively with 2.82 social platforms, according to a study by Global Web Index.

5. From solid identifiers to fluid interpretations

Traditional markers of identity are changing fast too. Neutral Culture is taking hold as consumers reject hard-and-fast historical definitions of gender in favour of more fluid lifestyle choices.

Their impact on lifestyle brands is already clear with Faye Toogood’s Agender pop-up store at Selfridges challenging accepted gender-centric retail models, and Caitlyn Jenner’s groundbreaking Vanity Fair cover leading us to question how and why we construct identity through gender.

Today, 49% of 18–24-year-olds in the UK define themselves as something other than completely heterosexual, according to YouGov. In the US, a March report from the Innovation Group found that 74% of Generation Z respondents (aged 13–20) and almost two-thirds of Millennials were more accepting of non-traditional gender identities than a year ago. Among Generation Z respondents, 56% said they knew at least one person who used gender-neutral pronouns.


The rise of the internet has made the tools of protest and organisation immediately accessible, allowing millions to instantly vent their frustrations online.

‘People everywhere seem to be morally aroused.’ Dov Seidman, author of How: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything, told The New York Times.

This culture of protest and activism is evident in four key shifts in consumer behaviour:

Backlash Culture

The second half of the Turbulent Teens is an age of protests. These range from regime-threatening mobilisations in the Middle East and massive anti-austerity rallies in Europe to instantly forgettable and insignificant social media campaigns, and have become so prevalent that The Guardian website has a section dedicated to them.


Backlash Culture

1. From open-sourced to opinionated

Earlier this year Microsoft introduced the world to its intelligent bot on Twitter. But after only 24 hours Microsoft had to delete its teen girl AI bot after people using her online had turned her into a Hitler-loving sex robot. In the wake of consumer-led subversions such as the Microsoft case and the Boaty McBoatface boat-naming debacle, brands are turning away from the old cliché about the customer always being right.

Realising that they have to stand for something to be taken seriously by increasingly irreverent consumers, brands are taking decisions rather than crowdsourcing them.

2. From politically correct to personally impassioned

Trigger warnings – disclaimers of potentially offensive content that were once the preserve of feminist blogs and Tumblr culture – have begun to enter the mainstream.

Students at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and George Washington University, among others, have requested they are used in the classroom. One student at Rutgers University suggested that The Great Gatsby should come with a trigger warning for ‘suicide, domestic abuse and graphic violence’.

But at the same time there is a backlash against a perception that political correctness is censorship by another name. A survey by the National Coalition Against Censorship found that 62% of professors believe trigger warnings have, or will have, a negative effect on academic freedom.

Almost three quarters (71%) of Americans think too much political correctness is a problem for the nation, according to Rasmussen Reports.

3. From authenticity to anti-authenticity

People have become increasingly suspicious of catchphrases and buzzwords. Matt Mattox, senior vice-president and group planning director of advertising firm The Martin Agency, says: ‘It doesn’t feel genuine. People see right through it and feel like they are being sold to.’

More than half of Americans believe that using the label ‘organic’ is simply an excuse to charge more, despite it being a certified label, according to a study by Mintel.

4. From broad overstimulation to deeper connections

Brand messaging that focuses on frequency rather than quality and depth is leaving consumers feeling overwhelmed, and encouraging them to switch off rather than engage.

Almost half (47%) of US internet users and 39% of UK internet users have installed ad-blocking software, according to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

Many consumers are becoming Deletists, deleting emails before opening them and unfollowing brands on social media to get away from irrelevant messages.

More than two thirds (69%) of UK consumers do both to avoid poorly targeted brand communications, according to Aimia.

‘Brands need to foster a mutual relationship and give consumers information they are pleased to hear,’ says Aimia’s senior vice-president of global digital strategy Martin Hayward.

Beyond Borders and Backlash Culture are producing new generations of consumers who demand that brands speak to them with a strong and unique voice.

40% Four out of 10 (40%) of consumers want a purposeful brand, but couldn’t spontaneously name a single one they felt fitted that description, according to a study of 21,000 consumers by BBMG and Globescan.

BBMG and Globescan


Cocktail Trends and their Macrotrends : 15



By taking a stand, even at the risk of alienating some consumers, they escape the blandness trap – and become noticed in a cluttered commercial landscape.

As Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, says: ‘If you’re not pissing off 50% of people, you’re not trying hard enough.’

It is this decision to stop being meek and mild that is motivating the most successful of Backlash Brands.

Chefs and bartenders are reclaiming their independence and creativity by making what they want to make, rather than bowing to consumer whims and crazes. In the process, consumers and bartenders are renouncing traditional rules and having their drinks the way they like them.

Kelly Fields of Willa Jean in New Orleans created the hit of the summer by completely ignoring the precious rules of wine to introduce people to Frosé Y’All – rosé wine made with crushed ice and syrup in a slushy machine. In Brooklyn, the Extra Fancy bar keeps New Yorkers cool with its Frozémonade.

Controversy Cocktails

In the opinionated backlash culture era of anti-authenticity behaviour and personally impassioned attitudes, brands are embracing their own backlash culture and deciding to stop trying to please all of the people all of the time.



1. Provocative Theatre

To grab and keep the attention of their often fickle patrons, bars are creating environments and drinks that provoke a strong customer reaction, and start conversations that keep on building.

At Operation Dagger in Singapore, Luke Whearty promotes an anti-speakeasy attitude with cocktails designed to intrigue the palate and disturbing design flourishes, such as CCTV in toilet cubicles, that are intended to raise eyebrows among his customers. Meanwhile, the menu at Artesian in London includes tongue-in-cheek drinks such as the Death of the Hipster.

2. Propaganda Booze

Increasingly, brands are using their reach to promote their political beliefs, and bars and spirits brands are no exception. With strategies such as restaurants offering a discount to Remain voters during the UK Brexit referendum, activist brands are on the rise.

Mexican drinks brand Ilegal Mezcal pronounced US presidential candidate Donald Trump a ‘pendejo’ (asshole) in an above-the-line and grassroots campaign in cities such as New York, Miami and Los Angeles.

OPERATION DAGGER, SINGAPORE

‘Our rule is that we only make balanced drinks. In Mexico, customers always ask me ‘Can you make it sweeter?’ But I teach my staff and customers that that is not the way, because you won’t taste the spirit or the lemon or the fruit or what we have in the cocktail. So we start to teach people to broaden their palate.’

Dov Seidman, author of How: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything, told The New York Times.



3. Dictatorial Drinking

Not only are brands becoming more politically engaged, restaurants and bars are going against the traditional rules and adopting unconventional approaches.

The Neumarkt restaurant in Zürich charges customers who don’t order a main course, while butcher Viande & Chef in Paris sells its meat by the carcass to encourage nose-to-tail eating. If your favourite tenderloin steak is gone, you have to wait until the next whole carcass arrives before you can buy it again.

Similarly, cocktail bars are taking back control. Dead Ringer in Sydney rejects the traditional elaborate cocktail menu in favour of making one big batch of a single cocktail from market-fresh seasonal ingredients. Once it’s gone, it’s gone – and the bar may never make it again.

4. New-gen cocktail bar

In addition to bars where the staff wear uniforms and patrons dress to impress, we are now witnessing the rise of the New-gen cocktail bars. These evolve and change the traditional idea of a cocktail bar to focus on a fun, relaxed and straightforward approach.

‘The cocktails and bars were starting to become boring. We just wanted to put the casualness and the fun back into a bar and really have a kind of place where people could have a beer just as easily as a cocktail and no one’s there to judge them.’ Tim Philips, owner, Bulletin Place bar and Dead Ringer, Sydney.

Original Sin in London is one example of a venue that wants to be the cocktail bar that brings back fun, where people come to enjoy themselves and can drink whatever they want – beer, cocktail, anything. Rather than being the bar for that special event, it aims to be your local neighbourhood bar that you frequent for any occasion. Across the ocean in Miami, Radio Bar is positioning itself as ‘a friendly spot to enjoy a craft cocktail while dancing to eclectic tunes, where one would feel just as comfortable in flip flops or a business suit’.

BULLETIN PLACE BAR, SYDNEY



5. Next-generation Menu

Another way in which cocktail bars are going against the traditions of the trade is by taking the cocktail menu to the next level. For too long the cocktail menu has been ignored as a means to engage people with your bar and drinks. Innovative bartenders are unleashing their creativity on the cocktail menu to grab people’s attention and break their habits.

‘People don’t want to read pages and pages of a cocktail menu. If you want people to engage, keep it concise yet interesting and memorable.’ Nandini Chauhan Barnes, drinks development manager at Caravan Restaurants

Trick Dog in San Francisco removed all the classical cocktail names from its menu and replaced them with concepts such as astrological signs or colours to help people navigate their cocktails.

TRICK DOG MENU, SAN FRANCISCO

Controversy Cocktails Toolkit

: Use the bar environment, cocktail menu and cocktails to challenge your audience and make them feel challenged – controversy and discourse can bring positive results

: Ignore the traditional rules of cocktails to explore new ingredients, processes and occasions

: Make your point of view into your point of difference – consumers need an emotional connection to promote you

: Less is more – do fewer things better, and demonstrate the benefit of this to your consumers and your business


Emotional Cocktails

In a world that is moving beyond borders, where it is more appro-priate to talk about brand-promiscuous consumers than brand-loyal consumers, and where people value experiences over owner-ship, we are seeing the rise of the emotional economy. Amplified by people’s desire to establish deeper connections, brands now more than ever need to understand the emotions of their consumers.

A growing body of scientific research is exploring a close correlation between physical health and emotional intelligence, and identifying new compound emotions driven by our complex modern existence.

It is no longer simply about the search for eternal contentment. As cultural historian Tiffany Watt Smith says: ‘Recent research on emodiversity shows a correlation between better health and experiencing a range of emotions, instead of just being happy all the time.’

At the same time, simple emotional descriptions such as fear, anger or surprise are no longer enough to describe the gamut of feelings that we experience in our hyper-connected urban lives.

Solastalgia, conceived by Australian psychiatrist Glenn Albrecht, describes the form of homesickness you might feel when still at home, but when the environment has been altered.

Blissonance is the blended feeling of happiness and anxiety experienced in a natural environment that you are affecting by enjoying it – like a beach in the fast-sinking Maldives.

Consumers are beginning to recognise and understand these links between their emotions and their mental and physical health, and they are taking action to investigate and measure their feelings more fully.

The Feel wristband, launched at the start of 2016, is one way of doing so. It tracks a wearer’s emotions through physiological markers, and recommends practical ways to increase emotional wellbeing.

Andrew Moore, the dean of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, believes that such devices mark the moment when machines began to grasp human emotions.

As emotional understanding and tracking cross into the mainstream, brands are tapping into emerging trends, behaviour patterns and marketing techniques to establish deeper connections with today’s less loyal consumers.

Food and drink have always held a strong and complex emotional charge, giving bars and restaurants a head start in plugging into the possibilities of the emerging E-motional Economy.

Traditions such as Omakase, where patrons put their trust in the creativity of the bartender, are making a comeback as people seek a more personal and intimate service.


Emotional Cocktails

1. Colourful Emotions

As consumers explore their emotions and look for more interesting emotional stimulation, restaurants and bars are thinking of new creative ways to offer experiences that resonate with their feelings.

Food and drink designer Marije Vogelzang uses colour to change people’s perception of, and emotions about, drinks. According to colour teachings, red snacks generate confidence, yellow snacks are good for friendship and black snacks stimulate discipline. US company Tealeaves teamed up with Pantone to create the online exhibition Palette for your Palate, which explored the subconscious role that colour plays in emotional engagement.

2. Sensitive Drinks

Bars and restaurants have always played strongly on emotions and are now starting to explore more complex compound emotions that recreate specific experiences through taste, colour and design.

Beer 0101 evokes the specific excitement of New Year’s Eve. Using IBM’s Watson, customer engagement agency Havas helia analysed people’s reactions to different beers to develop an algorithm that combines ingredients to create a beer that recreates the heady buzz of New Year’s Eve.

3. Emotional Senses

Future-facing bars are using our sense of smell to provoke a deeper emotional engagement with their patrons.

Bars such as Seymour’s Parlour in London are now using scent to plug into pleasurable and nostalgic memories and emotions by deploying the smell of mown grass to summon images of spring and smoked pine to conjure cosy autumn evenings.

‘It’s interesting that most of the scents being used are comforting, like fresh cut grass, a bonfire or favourite foods. Bartenders are using these to invoke positive, happy and comforting emotions. I haven’t seen anyone try to toy with negative emotions, but I think it would be really interesting to experience a cocktail like this – where the bartender is trying to invoke a negative emotion, but still create an enjoyable drink.’ Kat Rudberg, founder, Crafted Taste

SEYMOUR'S PARLOUR, LONDON

‘As a bartender, at the core of what we have to do in a short time is become a micro-friend.’

Tim Philips, owner of Bulletin Place and a previous winner of the World Class Bartender of the Year award.


Emotional Cocktails

4. Mood Dining

Innovative chefs are pushing the boundaries by directly trying to manipulate the neurotransmitters and hormones that affect our mood.

The Serotonin eatery in Melbourne was a plant-based café that created dishes designed to regulate neurotransmitters and hormone activity to boost a customer’s happiness levels. In the world of Juices, the East London Juice Company injects some of its drinks with 5-HTP, which has been linked to increasing serotonin levels, our happy hormone, and helping to reduce anxiety.

THE SEROTONIN EATERY, MELBOURNE

Emotional Cocktails Toolkit

: Use the senses of sight and smell to direct cocktail drinkers’ emotions

: Harness the analytical power of technology to develop more emotionally complex cocktails

: Use ingredients that directly affect people’s moods and emotions

: Complexity isn’t complicated – place value on the full bandwidth of emotions, not just happy = good, sad = bad

: Introduce technology to enhance rather than replace human-ness and emotional capriciousness

: Organise the cocktail menu in accordance with the emotional response that a cocktail elicits and tap into patrons’ emotions to make recommendations


Fluid Identity Patrons

Globalisation has made the world feel smaller and has instilled a borderless mentality. A consequence of consumers sharding their identities, a shift from local attitudes to global concerns and fluid identity interpretations, is the rise of the Fluid Identity Patrons.

Technology enables us to talk to friends, family members and colleagues across continents. Affordable travel means that another country is hours, rather than miles, away.

Consequently, traditional borders are blurring, and in some cases, vanishing. ‘Transnationalism and new layers of identity built around shared religion or musical taste rather than country of origin are becoming more common, particularly among the young,’ says professor Ian Goldin, director of the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford.

An explosion of mobile digital technology over the next decade will blur the idea of national identity still further. Half of the world’s population will use mobile devices to access the internet by 2020, including 3bn – or 45% of the population – in emerging economies, according to GSMA Intelligence.

Suddenly, these new online billions will have access to new life choices, education, healthcare and consumption, according to Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has vowed to bring the web to the entire world.

Our world is entering a third stage of globalisation defined by the actions of peripatetic individuals, rather than governments or corporations, according to Thomas Friedman, author and columnist at The New York Times.

It’s a stage defined by services such as Airbnb, Jobbatical and OneFineStay that enable global citizens to explore the world, build temporary communities and integrate more deeply with the culture they temporarily inhabit.

These global wanderers are reshaping how people understand the culture and identity of the countries they inhabit. Globally, a record 232m people are living outside of the country in which they were born, according to the UN.

As a result, 100 languages are spoken in many boroughs of London, according to UK Census data. In the US, multicultural citizens are the fastest-growing demographic and by 2050 the country will be majority non-Caucasian, according to the US Census Bureau.

We are seeing the rise of the New Bricolage Consumers who want to be immersed in culture and explore cultural heritage with integrity and honesty. To speak to them, brands will need to move beyond traditional demographic identifiers such as race, country of origin and even gender.



1. Cultural Produce

As global understanding becomes a key marker of modern sophistication, people are increasingly looking for ways to learn about different cultures without physically travelling to another country.

Alex Kratena, former co-owner of the Artesian bar in London’s Langham Hotel, did the travelling on behalf of his patrons. He returned from a foraging trip to the Amazon with native ingredients to create unique cocktails that enabled his customers to experience an exotic culture from the comfort of their bar stools. Meanwhile, in Sweden, Emil Åreng forages for local ingredients to tell visitors a unique story about the local environment.

2. Fluid Bars

Expatpreneurs have been drivers of restaurant innovation for decades as talented young chefs travel to explore the world to hone their skills. Now bartenders are following suit, working in many different countries to understand new cultures and spread their own progressive concepts in the process.

This cultural cross-over of global talent can be seen in bars such as 28 HongKong Street in Singapore, which combines a Japanese obsession with cocktail perfection with US-style laid-back hospitality.

SPEAK LOW, SHANGHAI



3. Neutral Culture

The alcohol industry is trying to evolve beyond its masculine past towards a more gender-neutral position where gender is left at the door and equality and achievement are central to the industry. Spirits are leaving behind their gender-specific past and appealing to everybody. Gin, for example, has evolved beyond its feminine perception, while bourbon has left behind its macho culture and is now embraced by both men and women.

At the Ace Hotel, bartenders are challenging gender norms with their strongest, booziest cocktail, which is bright pink and comes in a traditional women’s cocktail glass.

‘Sometimes bartenders will tell me that something is more of a man’s drink and that I won’t like it. Don’t judge my palate, you don’t know me.’ Nandini Chauhan Barnes, Caravan Restaurants

4. Cultural Journeys

Bartenders are using everything at their disposal, from ingredients to the bar environment and service, to take patrons on a cultural journey.

At Speak Low in Shanghai, the different floors of the building represent different cocktail cultures, allowing patrons to easily travel between them. The final and most exclusive floor even features lockers where patrons can store their bottle until their next visit. Meanwhile at Artesian, the bartender will make you a drink based on your holiday experience.

5. Agile Menus

New iterations of Bleisure spaces that combine the best of business and leisure lifestyle choices are proliferating across the globe to cater for the desires of a rootless New Bricolage community.

The Ace Hotel in London is a prime example of one of these new co-living spaces. A carefully curated cocktail menu reflects the different needs of a diverse audience from many different countries, enabling everyone to find something suitable for them.

6. Local Heroes

Bartenders are doing more than simply circling the globe, honing their own cocktail-making skills and repertoire. Many are using their travels to train local aspiring talent in the skills needed to create exceptional drinks.

Benjamín Padrón Novoa at Licorería Limantour in Mexico supports his local bar staff, helping them to save up to train overseas and bring their new skills back to their local communities. Diageo’s Learning For Life programme provides young unemployed people with coaching and specialist bartender training, opening the door to the profession.

LICORERIA LIMANTOUR TEAM, MEXICO CITY

Fluid Identity Patrons Toolkit

: Tell the cultural story of the ingredients, process and bartender in the product, the environment and the cocktail menu

: Become a fluid bar that blends different cultures to surprise the Fluid Identity Patrons

: Equip your teams with devices, apps and learning tools to enable them to easily converse, live and work across cultures with depth and fluency

: Develop an agile cocktail menu that caters for different occasions and different patrons

: Celebrate local heroes by investing in local talent

: Remove all traditional identifiers to describe a customer (citizenship, language, religion, age, nationality, location) and focus on a more personal and intimate approach

‘The world is now aware of the fact that you can’t really judge a book by its cover. Kind of, not stereotyping so much. You don’t really know who anyone is anymore, because there are fewer rules about who people are’

Tatiana Mercer, Managing Director BarChick


Shifts in the cocktail industry : 27



The final section of this report reflects on the wider changes in the industry. These pertain not only to the drinks made, but to the industry from a global perspective, how the role of the bartender is evolving and how bartending practices are changing.

Shifts in the cocktail industry

To use the words from Luke Whearty from Operation Dagger in Singapore, it is about ‘re-evaluating everything behind the bar, all the processes and the systems that we have in place, and sort of having a think about ‘Okay, why do we do things this way?’ You know, not just accepting that ‘Oh, it’s always been done this way’. That stems not only from the preparation or the technique of making the drinks, but also our waste management systems.’



1. Cocktail Dispersion

Historically, cocktail culture has been a poster child for Western cultural influences, with London and New York as its flagbearers, and Tokyo quietly following up to fine-tune the world’s cocktail-making craftsmanship.

Now, however, bars in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America are finding their way into the top 50 lists across the world as the power of the internet cross-pollinates ideas, knowledge and experience.

It is not a coincidence that the emergence of local cocktail culture is happening in tandem with a growing taste for spirits in emerging economies. In the past five years, consumption of spirits has risen by 26% in Africa and the Middle East, by 15% across Asia and by 22% in China alone, according to Euromonitor.

The trend looks set to continue with market researcher ASKCI predicting that China’s cocktail industry will grow by 30–40% a year until 2020.

2. Blurred Boundaries

The boundaries between restaurants and bars are blurring as restaurant chefs introduce cocktails to their menus and cocktail bars introduce their patrons to bar food.

Traditionally, restaurants and cocktail bars have been associated with a specific part of the evening, but today restaurants and cocktail bars are looking to extend the time that people spend in their establishments.

Restaurants are turning to cocktails to enable people to start their evening earlier and to encourage them to stay after dinner. Similarly, cocktail bars have introduced bar food that goes beyond the old bowl of peanuts or olives to persuade patrons to spend more time with them.

‘I’ve noticed that many new bars that open have a real food programme. They have a cook and everything. It’s not necessarily a pairing package, but they have a decent food programme and a decent cocktail programme.’ Amaury Guyot, owner, Sherry Butt Paris and Dersou

Bar food is becoming increasingly sophisticated too. Kenta Goto at Goto bar in New York appeals to the city’s most discerning palates with both his cocktails and his food, which are a modern interpretation of Japanese bar fare.

3. The Modern Bartender

As the cocktail industry evolves, the role of the bartender is being redefined to suit a more opinionated, knowledgeable and discerning cocktail drinker. It’s a major shift that was the main topic of debate at the first conference of the (P)our initiative by leading industry lights Alex Kretana, Monica Berg, Ryan Chetiyawardana, Jim Meehan, Joerg Meyer, Xavier Padovani and Simone Corporale.

Three big changes are clearly evident. Firstly, bartending is no longer a job for students to make some quick money to fund their hobby. It has evolved into a job with real and exciting career prospects – with some even earning star-like status.

Secondly, the bartender is expected to learn how to develop and implement a responsible drinking policy. And bar staff need to learn about sustainable bar practices and how to apply them creatively.

Finally, it is no longer sufficient for a bartender to simply have an encyclopaedic knowledge of drinks. The modern barman or woman often needs to be a trained chef with all the tools and ingredients of the kitchen at their fingertips.

At Mr Lyan, for example, the crew includes pastry chefs, bar staff trained as chefs and baristas.

‘The term bartender is probably more like the traditional notion of what a barista is in Italy. Traditionally, a barista served you food, he served you cocktails, he served you coffee. He was an all-rounder, he was your waiter, he was everything.’ Luke Whearty, Operation Dagger

THE : FUTURE : LABORATORY



4. Cocktail Proliferation

Cocktail culture has moved out of its traditional high-end venues and into the places where everyday life happens, from local pubs to a friend’s Sunday afternoon barbecue.

Dive and tiki bars were the first cocktail proliferators. Now pubs and houses have become the new cocktail drinking places of choice, with 26% of local pubs in the UK that serve food offering them and 73% of young consumers drinking them at home, according to Finest Call/Cellar Trends.

Smart technologies such as Perfect Drink are further helping DIY consumption to grow by empowering cocktail aficionados to make the perfect drink at home.

In addition, bartenders are pushing cocktails using a wider variety of flavours and textures to accommodate these different occasions. Bitter profiles are introducing drinkers to well-rounded flavours to help digestion after a meal, as cocktails find a new place in different parts of consumers’ lives.

This clear shift from sweet to bitter can be clearly seen in Drink International’s list of the most popular cocktails of 2015, with the Old Fashioned, the Negroni, the Sazerac, the Manhattan and the dry Martini in their top five.

5. Cocktail Reformulated

Pushing the boundaries still further, the most adventurous bartenders are reconsidering what constitutes a cocktail and are further pushing the boundaries of cocktails.

‘The most memorable course I had at The Clove Club was this 100-year-old Madeira,’ says Mike Knowlden, co-director of Blanch & Shock. ‘They pour you a tiny bit of it, which you taste, and then they pour a duck consommé over the top, and it becomes a duck soup effectively.

‘It left me with a fascinating thought: why can’t a consommé be a cocktail?’

With Bompas & Parr creating a cocktail cloud and Peg+Patriot seasoning its savoury cocktails like food dishes, the traditional notion of a cocktail is being challenged from every angle.

Cocktails have evolved far beyond their classic form of a mixed liquid in a glass. Creative bar staff and spirits aficionados equipped with the latest ingredients, technologies and ideas are changing the whole concept of the cocktail – and leaving us all thirsty for what comes next.

THE : FUTURE : LABORATORY

Experts : 31



Special thanks

Alexandra Irving Smith

Experts

Benjamín Padrón NovoaOwner Licorería Limantour, Mexico City

Amaury GuyotFounder Sherry Butt and Dersou

Josh Pollen and Mike KnowldenFounders Blanch + Shock

Shingo GokanFounder Speak Low and head bartender at Angel’s Share

Tatiana MercerManaging Director BarChick

Alex KratenaFounder of P(OUR)

Kat RudbergFounder of Crafted Taste

Luke WheartyOwner of Operation Dagger, Singapore and Outrage of Modesty South Africa

Hamish SmithEditor of The World’s 50 Best Bars

Tim PhilipsCo-Owner of Bulletin Place and Dead Ringer

Nandini Chauhan Barnes Drinks Development Manager Caravan Restaurants

Diageo brand ambassadors

Stephanie JordanGlobal Brand Ambassador Tanqueray 10

Tim JudgeGlobal Brand Ambassador Bulleit

Daniel DoveReserve Brands Ambassador UK

Rebecca QuinonezGlobal Brand Ambassador Ron Zacapa

Paulo FigueiredoGlobal Brand Ambassador Ketel One

Experts

: : diageo : : world class : : future of cocktails

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